Pumpkins
by Momiji Aki
Summary: Mai had brought pumpkins to the SPR to carve with her friends. Will Lin and the most narcissistic and egotistical person, Naru carve one as well? ONE-SHOT.


**Pumpkins**

Waking up, Mai groaned and slammed down her hand onto the alarm clock. She was never a morning person. Albeit, she was very fond of sleep regardless of her hysterical and petrifying dreams.

She rose upright and Mai being Mai, she was half-awake. She rolled off the edge of the bed with her quilt tangled among her feet—in return she plummeted down onto the hard wooded-floor. She groaned at the stinging pain on her cheek. Of course despite her being not the morning person, she was immensely clumsy.

Mai rised to her feet and rubbed her somewhat tight and drowsy eyes. She yawned and peered at her slammed down alarm clock. Carefully she lifted it up and stared directly at the three digits; 8:48 AM.

_Oh no._ Mai thought. She was terribly late—once again. Obviously, she was _never _on time and her boss, nicknamed Naru; short for narcissist always scolded her. In fact whenever they get cases and whenever she was late during those times, Naru chided at her ten times more in hopes of getting her to work earlier.

Mai scurried to the closet and changed into her typical and casual clothes. A hoodie above a t-shirt and the usual skirt she wears. She dashed to the bathroom and did her routine.

Mai was never the girl who spent her time in the bathroom for ten long minutes. In fact, her swiftest time was exactly four minutes and seventeen seconds.

She darted towards the kitchen and seized a plain bread before shoving it into her mouth rather forcefully. She hurried towards her shoulder-bag and stepped into her warm boots and headed out not consuming any more time.

She dashed and dashed towards the train and had made it just in time before the doors had slid to close. Catching her breath, she sat down onto a vacant chair and zipped her bag open. She looked inside and found her agenda before taking it out.

She extracted a pen from her pocket and began to write her usual schedule on it. Suddenly, she found herself flipping the pages rather rapidly and stopped exactly on the calendar.

From her perspective, her eyes found the thirty-first of October—which was primarily today. Mai inhaled a huge amount of air and exhaled it out of her mouth. She grinned slyly as she marked a giant 'X' on it. She decided to purchase a pumpkin for herself and the entire SPR.

_Hopefully we can carve some pumpkins together. _She thought. Smiling, she deposited her agenda and pen in her bag before fastening it.

She hopped off the train after it had stopped. Pulling her cuff up, she stared at the watch secured around her slim wrist; 9:00 AM.

She sighed. She was one hour late for work and she knew it was all because of the train. Yes, the train. She accused the train for being so slow instead of herself. _Of course, who would blame themselves? _She thought and giggled.

Mai swiftly ran along the curb of the crowded sidewalk in which a window-store caught her eye. There were many massive pumpkins—waiting to be sold and it was only five bucks for three pumpkins.

How many people were in SPR? One, three, six.. Eight! There were eight of them including Mai, herself.

She grinned and dashed into the store, purchasing eight pumpkins—costing twelve bucks and sixty-seven cents from her wallet.

She laughed and imagined the entire SPR's reactions. Of course Naru and Lin wouldn't bother carving one, but today was special to her and would force them no matter what. Even if it meant risking her life—that is, if she doesn't end up dead.

Mai realized she needed to go to work before Naru docked her pay. She snatched the bags that was once on the counter and registered that the weight was quite heavy for her, but she didn't complain. She raced towards her work making sure the bags didn't pop open from the bottom.

Staggering up the stairs, she was sweating and burning hot. She had cursed and glared at the sun once, but ended up immediately looking away seeing that the light was too much for her.

Reaching up the top and walking down the hall, she saw the SPR door. She took a full breath in and slowly released it. She reached for the handle and turned it. Bad idea. The bell on top of the door jingled acknowledging someone had entered.

Mai bit her lip hoping Naru wouldn't think it was her. I mean, who are you kidding? Mai wouldn't arrive _this _late! Wrong.

Naru's door had been yanked open and out came himself, the biggest narcissist jerk in the universe. As he came out from his dim office, he glared icily at Mai. Her spine shivered from tail to neck and gulped a rather thick saliva down her throat.

"Hey Naru! Good mor—"

"You're late," he interrupted harshly. Mai took a step back.

"W-Well, you see—" She rubbed the back of her head.

"What is that?" He pointed at her hand. Mai blinked thrice and realized Naru was pointing directly at the bags she was clutching.

"I bought pumpkins!" Mai grinned and settled the bags onto a vacant long-rectangle coffee table.

"For what reason?" Naru asked and strode towards the bags.

"So we can carve them! I mean, it's Halloween and we _have _to celebrate," Mai cheered.

Looking at Naru, he was already staring at her. Mai blushed and hastily looked away. "I'll make tea." She raced for the kitchen.

As she waited for the kettle to whistle, she headed out and noticed Naru had disappeared—obviously back in his dim office. She sighed in relief before heading back into the kitchen to the whistling kettle.

Pouring the hot water into two teacups, she smelled the Earl Grey and smiled. Mai placed the teacups onto a metal tray and carried it out.

Knocking on Lin's door, Mai heard a grunt in response. She balanced herself and walked inside, placing the teacup onto the desk beside him. Lin nodded as a thank you and Mai smiled before heading out.

Mai took a breath and knocked on Naru's door. Hearing him bid her to enter, she slowly opened the creaking door. She steadily walked towards him and gently placed the teacup on his desk.

She waited for his 'thank you' like usual, but once again, it didn't happen. Mai bit her lip and walked out, closing the door behind her. She sighed and advanced towards the pumpkins.

Abruptly, the bells on top of the door jingled. Mai looked up and saw Bou-san, Ayako, Yasuhara, John and Masako piling in. Like usual, Bou-san and Ayako were arguing and Yasuhara being himself, had to be flirting with Bou-san. John sweat-dropped and Masako covered her mouth with her kimono sleeve.

"Good morning, guys!" Mai smiled at them as everyone's attention was turned towards her

"Jou-chan!" Bou-san dashed towards her and picked her up into a giant bear hug. He squeezed so tightly and Mai craved for air as she was lacking it. Suddenly, a _thwack!_ sound was heard and Mai descended onto the floor, landing on her behind.

Bou-san was seen clutching onto his head. "What'd you do that for, you old hag!?" he yelled at Ayako.

"Excuse me, you old monk!?" They continued to bicker as everyone was drowned into their own world.

"What are these bags?" Masako said. Bou-san and Ayako stopped and looked at her. Following her gaze, their own eyes landed on three bags filled with pumpkins albeit unbeknownst to them.

"Oh! Those are pumpkins that I wanted us to carve today since it's Halloween!" Mai grinned at unpacked the bags. Dumping the eight pumpkins onto the table, she turned to them. She raised her forefinger. "We all get one."

Everyone's eyes sparkled as they rushed to choose excluding John, Masako and Mai. John and Masako slowly walked towards the group and began to choose their own.

Mai rushed to Lin's door and yanked it open. "Lin-san! Pumpkin carving time!" She grinned and dashed towards Naru's door. But as she reached for the handle, the door itself was slammed open right in front of her.

Naru's eyes went down to Mai and raised a questioning eyebrow. She blushed. "N-Nothing, narcissist!" She ran back to the others.

"_What _are you guys doing? This place is not a cafeteria, get out all at once!" Naru glared at them.

"Aww, Naru-bou! Can't we carve pumpkins?" Bou-san said and raised his pumpkin into the air. Yasuhara did the same and pounded his pumpkin with Bou-san's. They both laughed and rushed towards the kitchen.

Naru glared at them and out of the corner of his eye, he saw Lin striding towards the group. "Lin, you are seriously not going to."

Lin turned to him and shook his head. He took a seat onto the sofa and shifted a bit to make himself comfortable. And once again, he began to type on his laptop.

"Lin-san, aren't you going to carve a pumpkin?" John asked and smiled at him. Lin looked up at him before returning to his laptop. John sighed.

"We're back!" Yasuhara and Bou-san said simultaneously. They both waved the knives in the air, virtually slicing Ayako in half.

She glared and whacked their heads with her purse as they started another argument. The rest of the group sighed. Naru walked towards Lin and sat comfortably beside him.

Just as Ayako and Bou-san's argument had ended, they handed the knives to the others. Mai smiled and decided to carve something rather different than the others.

Although Mai had been carving pumpkins ever since she was little, she knew quite a lot. Her mother used to carve so many details that it seemed impossible for her and Mai remembered those days she tried to do as well. She softly smiled and plucked the pumpkin guts out.

"Naru, Lin-san, come on! Please, please, please carve a pumpkin!" Mai begged and used her super-adorable puppy pleading eyes. However, it had not worked on Naru.

"No." came the reply from the narcissist. Lin sighed and gently closed his laptop.

"I suppose I have to otherwise _they_ would keep nagging me," Lin said, emphasizing the word 'they.'

Naru glared and watched him grab a pumpkin and a knife. He continued to watch as Lin pulled the pumpkin guts out.

"Let's bake the seeds after!" Yasuhara joyfully said. Everyone cheered minus a _few _others.

"Naru-bou! Carve a pumpkin before it gets all manky!" Bou-san said, carving a rather awkward detail on the said pumpkin.

Naru sighed and finally stood up. Everyone stopped what they were doing and watched him gently pick up the knife. He promptly stabbed the pumpkin in the head and continued to pierce around the hard stem.

By then, the entire SPR were carving pumpkins. Everyone was enjoying themselves as Bou-san made ridiculous jokes with Yasuhara purposely flirting with him. They were all smiling and laughing. Naru and Lin had a smile or two, but it disappeared sooner than everyone thought.

Suddenly, the pumpkin guts were being thrown at one and another. Afterwards, everyone was a huge mess. They had hoped nobody would come in to request an investigation seeing that the entire room was all filthy as well.

Two long hours later after a considerably long clean up, everyone decided to show what they had carved on their pumpkins.

"Let's start with Yasuhara," John suggested and grinned at him. Yasuhara smirked.

He turned his pumpkin around and the entire room was filled with gasps.

"Yasu! Is that Bou-san and you . ." Mai trailed off.

"Snogging!?" Everyone finished for her.

Bou-san looked horrified and hid behind Ayako—in return got a whack on his head.

"Yes! My love _had _to be carved onto this pumpkin with me!" Yasuhara wiggled his eyebrows and everyone laughed. Bou-san blinked thrice in disgust before returning to his pumpkin.

"Next, next!" Yasuhara yelled. Bou-san raised his hand up and slowly turned his pumpkin around.

"S.P.R?" everyone said in unison. Bou-san nodded.

"This, by all means mean that we stay together no matter what happens to us or what we go through together. We're somewhat alike to a family, like Mai had said." Bou-san grinned as everyone smiled.

"I want to go next!" Ayako spoke and turned her pumpkin around. Mai, Bou-san and Yasuhara laughed uncontrollably on the floor, Masako and John silently chuckled and Naru and Lin stifled their own laughs.

Ayako's pumpkin showed a usual pumpkin face, but was messed up somehow. The carving areas were collapsing bit by bit albeit it was superb.

"Hey, don't laugh! It wasn't my fault that someone shook the table!" Ayako yelled.

"S-Sorry, Ay-yak-o!" Mai giggled and clutched her stomach in pain. Yasuhara wiped his tears off and covered his laugh with absurd coughs which had made him get whacked on the head by Ayako.

Bou-san bit his lip, stopping himself to chuckle. But in the end, he bursted into such a large laughter—startling everyone. Ayako whacked him firmer which made them both get into a argument, but with Bou-san laughing here and there once in a while.

"So," Mai started, wiping her teary eyes with her sleeve.

"I'll go next," Masako softly spoke. She turned her pumpkin around and it showed another usual pumpkin face, but it was neatly incised. Everyone nodded and smiled.

John had the same as he was next, but he placed a rather awkward wig on it which made everyone burst into laughter whilst Naru and Lin had tried to stifle their own.

"Lin-san, show yours!" Yasuhara jumped up and down like a little child. Lin sighed and turned his pumpkin around.

It showed two letters; '家庭'

"What does that say?" Mai curiously asked. Lin slightly smiled.

"It says 'Family.'" Lin spoke. Everyone stared at him in 'awe.'

"How about you, Naru-bou?" Bou-san said as everyone turned to him. Naru pinched the bridge of his nose and turned his pumpkin around.

"What is _that?_" Ayako blinked thrice. Naru glared at her rather coldly.

"A teacup," he bluntly said. When the words finally sank into everyone's brain, they all laughed excluding Mai.

"You narcissist! That's _so_ mean!" Mai's face turned into different shades of red which made everyone laugh harder. Yasuhara was banging his head against the wall whilst Bou-san was slapping his hand down onto the floor, clutching onto their stomachs of course.

"I don't remember seeing your face carved beside this teacup." Naru stared down at her.

"But—!" Mai stopped when no words came out. She pouted and crossed her arms around her chest.

"Now, now, Mai. Don't pout, we all know Naru loves tea!" Yasuhara said, his forehead turning purple which made everyone gaze at it. "What? I couldn't help it."

"Mai, are you going to show your pumpkin or not?" Masako rudely said. Mai raised an eyebrow and sighed.

She slowly turned her pumpkin around and everyone gasped in surprise. Her pumpkin was carved into eight people—and the eight people were obviously the entire SPR. The words 'SPR' were above and flowers were carved around.

"That's beautiful, Mai! Charming, divine, ideal!" Ayako praised.

"It's supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!" Yasuhara yelled. Everyone stared at him.

"What did you just say?" Bou-san said in a curious manner.

"Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious?" Yasuhara repeated with a finger on his chin.

"Amazing! You have an extraordinary dictionary, Yasu," John praised.

"Thank you. I appreciate it!" Yasuhara bowed, earning a laugh from everyone.

Lin and Naru sighed and slightly smiled.

* * *

Later in the night, the pumpkins that the said SPR carved were placed onto a windowsill beside a picture frame of the entire SPR family. And inside each pumpkins, they were lit with a candle that illuminated the closed dim office.

**Here goes this oneshot. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed it. Happy Halloween!**


End file.
